4 ms·

> Caveat: I am not your lawyer ??? Why would he suddenly think you are?

mixedCase 3y ago
Because they were giving advice about a legal matter, so by stating what seems obvious to you and me, the GP is covering themselves from "implied" lawyer-client relationships which under some jurisdictions could adjudicate them the responsibilities of a lawyer to a client if a person could prove in court that they reasonably believed they were acting as their lawyer. I don't know if this is actually been a problem ever brought to a judge to be honest, but that's the reason why that disclaimer is made and of course, I am not your lawyer.
- contrarian1234 3y ago
  I want to find out where lawyers hang out online and if they close ever sentence/post with "I am not your lawyer"
  - cyrillite 3y ago
    Check Legal Advice subreddits, it happens. It may be an abundance of caution most of the time, but it doesn’t hurt.
    - ghaff 3y ago
      It’s pretty common in situations where you could be seen as giving legal, accounting, financial, etc. advice especially if you have some certification to that effect to disclaim what you’re saying as actually being advice. Lawyers are especially careful about this outside of a specific client relationship.
- K0balt 3y ago
  I also choose to not be this guy’s lawyer.
quitit 3y ago
mixedCase outlined the liability point of view for a professional, the other: Each person seeking legal advice should retain a lawyer and not rely solely on advice from faceless internet forums. The same applies to many kinds of professions, such as health. "Hey I've heard x,y and z, but I'm not your doctor." Everyone is of course free to speak about legal matters and provide their take, but keep in mind that even well studied lawyers, with all of the context and evidence are not always successful in their arguments. Internet forums are many steps removed from these professionals, so you should moderate accordingly. In forums such as Reddit/Hacker News/etc, there are many discussions that concern legal matters - in my experience the overwhelming majority of highly voted comments and frequently repeated ideas are not ones which are grounded in fact, but rather comments that align with the groups desires. People upvote and repeat ideas that appeal to them, not to ones which they've investigated themselves as factual or accurate. Another one to look out for is IANAL: "I am not a lawyer". (Yes I'm being serious with this acronym.) This is to avoid a different kind of liability: the unauthorised practice of law.
- contrarian1234 3y ago
  This line of reasoning hold for pretty much any online advice. You don't close your comments with "I'm not your DBA" or "please consult your own paid certified C++ developer" or whatever I don't think once you pay a lawyer their IQ jumps 20 points and they're necessarily more correct than crowdsourced information. Doctors and lawyers arent somehow infallible once hired
  - rcxdude 3y ago
    Being someone's DBA does not imply certain legal status in the way being someone's lawyer does. It can be a real headache for a lawyer if someone they are not representing claims that they are representing them (which happens, a lot: funnily enough a lot of people seeking legal advice online are really not at all familiar with how this works), so it's standard boilerplate to clarify that if there's any potential cause for confusion.
  - TeMPOraL 3y ago
    DBAs and C++ developers aren't licensed professionals. Doctors and lawyers are.

Because they were giving advice about a legal matter, so by stating what seems obvious to you and me, the GP is covering themselves from "implied" lawyer-client relationships which under some jurisdictions could adjudicate them the responsibilities of a lawyer to a client if a person could prove in court that they reasonably believed they were acting as their lawyer. I don't know if this is actually been a problem ever brought to a judge to be honest, but that's the reason why that disclaimer is made and of course, I am not your lawyer.

contrarian1234 3y ago
I want to find out where lawyers hang out online and if they close ever sentence/post with "I am not your lawyer"
- cyrillite 3y ago
  Check Legal Advice subreddits, it happens. It may be an abundance of caution most of the time, but it doesn’t hurt.
  - ghaff 3y ago
    It’s pretty common in situations where you could be seen as giving legal, accounting, financial, etc. advice especially if you have some certification to that effect to disclaim what you’re saying as actually being advice. Lawyers are especially careful about this outside of a specific client relationship.
K0balt 3y ago
I also choose to not be this guy’s lawyer.

quitit 3y ago

mixedCase outlined the liability point of view for a professional, the other: Each person seeking legal advice should retain a lawyer and not rely solely on advice from faceless internet forums. The same applies to many kinds of professions, such as health. "Hey I've heard x,y and z, but I'm not your doctor." Everyone is of course free to speak about legal matters and provide their take, but keep in mind that even well studied lawyers, with all of the context and evidence are not always successful in their arguments. Internet forums are many steps removed from these professionals, so you should moderate accordingly. In forums such as Reddit/Hacker News/etc, there are many discussions that concern legal matters - in my experience the overwhelming majority of highly voted comments and frequently repeated ideas are not ones which are grounded in fact, but rather comments that align with the groups desires. People upvote and repeat ideas that appeal to them, not to ones which they've investigated themselves as factual or accurate. Another one to look out for is IANAL: "I am not a lawyer". (Yes I'm being serious with this acronym.) This is to avoid a different kind of liability: the unauthorised practice of law.

contrarian1234 3y ago
This line of reasoning hold for pretty much any online advice. You don't close your comments with "I'm not your DBA" or "please consult your own paid certified C++ developer" or whatever I don't think once you pay a lawyer their IQ jumps 20 points and they're necessarily more correct than crowdsourced information. Doctors and lawyers arent somehow infallible once hired
- rcxdude 3y ago
  Being someone's DBA does not imply certain legal status in the way being someone's lawyer does. It can be a real headache for a lawyer if someone they are not representing claims that they are representing them (which happens, a lot: funnily enough a lot of people seeking legal advice online are really not at all familiar with how this works), so it's standard boilerplate to clarify that if there's any potential cause for confusion.
- TeMPOraL 3y ago
  DBAs and C++ developers aren't licensed professionals. Doctors and lawyers are.